Ars Technica Reviews Controller Keyboard

phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has reviewed the AlphaGrip AG-5 handheld keyboard and mouse. From the article: 'After lots of research and five revisions, the perfectionists at AlphaGrip finally decided that they had a product worthy of marketing, and they released the long awaited AG-5. Although the AG-5 looks strange and intimidating, it is a unique and highly innovative product that deserves consideration, particularly by mobile computing enthusiasts. The AG-5 interfaces with computers via a single removable USB cable. It uses a simple chord-like keyboarding model and an integrated trackball to provide complete keyboard and mouse functionality in a unique form factor that looks a bit like a console gaming controller.'"

Comments

Cool.. So..

[Jupix]

does it get you banned in WoW? :P

Re:Cool.. So..

[ackthpt]

Avast, ye swab perhaps you'd rather read about Arrrrs Technica's review of a keyboard

Re:Cool.. So..

[Spy der Mann]

does it get you banned in WoW? :P

And I nominate Jupix for the next slashdot cliché!

Votes please?

Re:Well....

[Anonymous Coward]

A keyboard is letters on buttons...

ICK

[Lumpy]

I had to learn the Handeykey Twiddler for my foray into the world of wearable computing and it was a PITA to learn. But it at least let me do it one handed and at a somewhat decent rate. This thing looks really awkward to use no matter what you do.

None of these alternative keybards have any real benefits. The twiddler was close as you could type while walking down the street or listening during a class without getting everyone's attention. This thing will get professors glaring at you.

Re:I'm not sure this is the answer

[harrkev]

Try doing that while riding on a train, or as a passenger in a car. That invention that you pointed to ONLY works if you have a table or other flat surface in fron of you. And if you type too long on a table, your hands would likely start hurting.

-- Now, on to other things --
I am the proud owner of an Alphagrip. I have only spend a couple of hours with it so far, but I have an important comment that was not mentioned on TFA...

I am a large guy. I am over six feet tall -- and I have large hands.

I find the Alphagrip to be uncomfortable because it was designed for use by smaller hands. When I am holding it to comfortably reach the back keys, my fingers are in the wrong position to easily use the front keys. Similarly, if I can use the front keys, I have difficulty with the back keys.

I am also not entirely sure how to hold this thing either. If it was bigger, I could press my palms against the side. However, as it is, I have to use my fingertips to hold it, which is awkward because those same fingertips are always over one button or another. If you press to hard then you get extra characters that you don't want.

The Alphagrip seems like it has the posibility to be rather nice if it can fit you. But if you have large hands, you might want to reconsider until they make the AG-6.

Re:stop propogating myths

[tyme]

demon411 wrote:

"In 1874 a company called Sholes and Glidden developed the QWERTY keyboard layout for their typewriters in order to decrease the frequency of mechanical failure."

Stop Propogating Myths

What are you talking about? According an article referenced from your first link:

The first typewriter had its letters on the end of rods called "typebars." The typebars hung in a circle. The roller which held the paper sat over this circle, and when a key was pressed, a typebar would swing up to hit the paper from underneath. If two typebars were near each other in the circle, they would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession. So, Sholes figured he had to take the most common letter pairs such as "TH" and make sure their typebars hung at safe distances.

He did this using a study of letter-pair frequency prepared by educator Amos Densmore, brother of James Densmore, who was Sholes' chief financial backer. The QWERTY keyboard itself was determined by the existing mechanical linkages of the typebars inside the machine to the keys on the outside. Sholes' solution did not eliminate the problem completely, but it was greatly reduced.

The keyboard arrangement was considered important enough to be included on Sholes' patent granted in 1878 (see drawing), some years after the machine was into production. QWERTY's effect, by reducing those annoying clashes, was to speed up typing rather than slow it down.

This indicates that the QWERTY layout is a direct result of the inventor attempting to prevent mechanical jams in the device. The submitter of the article wrote:

In 1874 a company called Sholes and Glidden developed the QWERTY keyboard layout for their typewriters in order to decrease the frequency of mechanical failure.

The myth to which you are alluding, however, is that Sholes developed the QWERTY layout to decrease the speed of typists (admittedly, to prevent the same jamming of typebars), when, in fact, the QWERTY layout acheived exactly the opposite effect (it allowed typists to type faster because jamming was less likely). The submitter is not claiming that Sholes was trying to slow down the typists (a myth) but that he was trying to reduce typebar jams (the truth).